Path 2

Scary Teens Are Bullying the Wrong People

February 15, 2011

Teenagers usually get yelled at for doing drugs, drinking, cheating on their homework, and having premarital sex. But nowadays, those are just things their “boring older siblings” did “like five years ago.” So what does the generation that follows the 16 and Pregnant generation do to get some attention around here? Things their older brothers and sisters would never imagine doing.

Today, the New York Post reports that “Two cold-hearted pre-teens chucked ice balls at a 60-year-old woman at St. Edwards Street and Myrtle Avenue.” They gave her “a smattering of bruises.”

The Post also tells us the story of the “downtown worker beaten for no reason by teen wolf pack” — middle-aged Long Island man, Don Eklund, who was beaten violently by a group of teens and had to get three metal plates put into his face.

So are teens really doing this to get attention? A New York Times article makes the well-known point that kids bully each other to climb the social ladder. But the article points to a new study that claims kids really bully people in their own peer group and not the traditional “jock vs. nerd” standoff. The study says that the top 2 percent (the Regina Georges of the world) don’t even bully at all — they don’t have to. It’s really only a third of the student population that bullies in an attempt to rise above their friends who “so don’t deserve the attention.”

Listen up, vicious teenagers: if you really want to be cool, stop bullying pregnant ladies, 60-year-olds, and middle-aged men, and start making fun of your friends. It can only help you in the long run.